June 2008 archive

Cover: The Bee Gees Meldrum’s TV hit at heroin Heroin addiction has claimed the lives of four of his friends, so Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum has decided to use his profile as a national TV presenter to do something about it. The Countdown host has been given the go-ahead by ABC to produce a documentary to …

Every city is parochial to some extent, but for some reason, Melburnians are just that little more precious about their city – especially if there are seen to be influences from Sydney. This attitude to all things local was never more evident than the year 1987 – when the media shake-up not only saw all …

Cover: Ugly Dave hits backBlankety Blanks panelist Ugly Dave Gray (pictured) answers his critics that say his jokes on the popular game show are too smutty. “I’m not saying we’re perfect, we do get a bit naughty at times, but it’s harmless. We don’t try to shock or offend people,” he tells TV Times. “I …

A few new additions to our YouTube channel, this time from two significant days – 31 December 1999 and 1 January 2000 – that threatened to end all civilisation as we knew it with the possibility of the Y2K bug coming to bite computer systems all around the world. First, from the Nine Network, a …

Cover: Cop Shop’s real-life rebelIn playing troubled teenager Gayle Taylor in the Seven Network series Cop Shop, actress Jo-Anne Moore (pictured, with co-stars Rowena Wallace and George Mallaby) can see similarities between that of her character and her own teen years. “I had a period when I was very rebellious. If I saw something I …

The dire predicament that Perth community TV station Access 31 (pictured) has found itself in should serve as a warning to other community TV stations and the government whose inaction in protecting the sector in the wake of digital conversion continues to make it even more vulnerable. Access 31, which began transmission in 1999, is …

He might not have been crowned the King of Australian Television, but Reg Grundy (pictured) has today received Queen’s Birthday honours for his contribution to the entertainment industry. Grundy, now 84, started in television hosting the original Wheel Of Fortune for Sydney’s TCN9 in the 1950s, though the program originally began on radio. He then …

Not content with just sharing YouTube clips from other members, we’ve now taken the next step ourselves and launched our own YouTube channel. Thanks to the wonders of cheap DVD recorders, we can now bring you some select moments of TV’s past – hopefully some of which are new to YouTube. The first YouTube video …

Cover Story: Norman’s ConquestsPrior to the new series of The Norman Gunston Show on the Seven Network, actor Garry McDonald tells TV Times about the perils of the celebrity interviews of his alter ego – but the actor says that only one interviewee became really annoyed: film director Ken Russell. As McDonald recalls, “I asked …

Some rare news footage of Melbourne’s ABC News on a day where tragedy struck in Melbourne. On the morning of 15 October 1970, a span of the West Gate Bridge collapsed while still under construction. The tragedy claimed the lives of 35 workers and was Victoria’s worst ever industrial accident. A royal commission that followed …